Doraemon
Doraemon is an animated TV series, produced by TV Asahi and Shin-ei Animation since 1979. Plot Every episode usually revolves around the titular Doraemon character himself, a robotic cat sent back from the year 2112 to the present day in order to aid the troubled young boy, Nobita Nobi (also known as "Noby" in some adaptations). Nobita virtually always fails his tests, arrives at school late, ends up standing in the hall, being beaten up by neighbourhood bully Gian/Big G, having his jealousy provoked by "rich kid" Suneo/Sneech's bragging, and encounters mishaps when trying to impress his friend, Shizuka/Sue. Nobita often asks Doraemon to pull gadgets out of his "4th-dimensional Pocket" in an attempt to rectify these situations. Nobita, however, often fails to understand the power that these gadgets hold, and ends up letting the effects of such a gadget loose upon other people, or to undesired effect upon himself. On the other hand, Nobita does occasionally exploit these gadgets with somewhat unexpected, albeit neutral or positive, results. These consequences are often of a much larger magnitude in the feature-length animated films, and in some special episodes. History Doraemon's origins as a franchise trace back to 1969, as a series of manga strips that appeared in the CoroCoro children's comic magazine. Manga artists Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko, operating under the pen name "Fujiko Fujio", published a number of stories starring the titular character. In 1973, Nippon Television Network Corporation attempted to make an animated adaptation of the series. The anime failed spectacularly, with low viewership, budgetary issues that prevented the show's run from being extended, a backlog of only 26 episodes, and a fire that destroyed all archived footage of the cancelled series (except for the show's opening) years after the cancellation. An attempt at restarting the failed anime series came in 1979, when TV Asahi and Shin-ei Animation started another Doraemon series, that would become the de facto standard of all future episodes. This version was a massive success, and even broke outside of Japan, with Europe, South-east Asia and India being the most notable export markets. The show ended on March 18, 2005, with TV Asahi having aired 1,787 episodes prior to that date. This only proved to be a mere short-term hiatus, as the show would return to the air a month later (April 15, 2005) after redesigns of the characters and a new animation style were introduced. This is often referred to as being totally separate from the 1979 series, despite their close proximity to each other with respect to their cancellation/premiere times respectively. The 2005 series continues to this day, and has spawned even more spin-off media and merchandise. Broadcast format When an episode of the show is airing for the first time, in most parts of Japan, the show airs every Saturday at 19:00pm local time (JST/UTC+9, or 10:00am GMT), either on TV Asahi or on one of its affiliated stations. ABS Television also runs Doraemon broadcasts on an international scale; however, it often takes up to 2 weeks to prepare an episode taken directly from TV Asahi for international viewing. International airings Asia The Doraemon series found many fans in south-east Asia and India, where adaptations of the show ran on Hungama, RCTI, GMA, and many other networks. Official merchandise does not seem to be a point of focus, with virtually all Doraemon output coming from the anime series alone. Europe Doraemon somehow became a smash-hit success story on the Iberian peninsula, where LUK Internacional licensed and distributed the show in Spain, Portugal, and their outlying territories. Other European licensors have expanded the series' outreach to France, Poland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. North America Many licensors and networks have attempted to air the Doraemon anime series in the lucrative United States market: * "Cable superstation" WTBS picked up the rights to the series in 1985, but never aired a single episode. Some people later put the blame on: ** Potential controversies surrounding its content, due to differences on what is deemed suitable for American and Japanese children respectively, ** The cost of producing a new localised adaptation, similar to those that would later run in other countries, and ** Some people dismissing it as simply being "too Japanese" to garner any interest from American children. * American cable/satellite network TV Japan aired the original Japanese version of Doraemon until January 2014, with no reason being given for its cancellation. Some people pointed to ABS International alienating TV Japan's viewers with the promise of subtitles and reruns of popular episodes, whilst others pointed to an upcoming English dub of the show (both of these claims were actually true). * TV Asahi entered an agreement with Bang Zoom Entertainment and the Disney-ABC Television Group to create an "international standard" Doraemon dub that would air on the Disney XD cable network in the US. In mid-2014, the first-episode of the newly-adapted show (titled Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future) premiered and marked the first time that the series has ever aired on mainstream North American television. An accompanying translation of the original manga was released as a series of Amazon Kindle e-books, and later sold as physical printed versions. Worldwide The Aso Broadcasting System (partially owned by Nippon TV and TV Asahi) has aired the original Japanese series internationally as of 1997. ABS airs all episodes on a weekly basis, with English subtitles. According to TV Asahi, "there's just a two-week delay between us airing an episode in Japanese, and them ABS airing the same episode, albeit translated, internationally". Much like LUK Internacional, ABS has also produced a live-action spin-off of the series, this time under the title "Doraemon: A Visit to the 22nd Century". This show has no relation to the Doraemon Land show that aired in Spain. Spin-offs The overwhelming popularity of the Doraemon anime series lead to a number of spin-offs being produced and aired in several countries: * In Japan, 36 feature-length films starring Doraemon have been produced by Toho Co, Ltd (the same movie studio responsible for the Godzilla films) in conjunction with Shin-ei and TV Asahi. The first full-length feature film was released in 1980. Some of these films have shattered domestic Japanese box office records. * Kabushiki Gaisha ABS created a spin-off variety show titled "Doraemon: A Visit To The 22nd Century". Hosted by Doraemon, Nobita and Sewashi Nobi, Minato Sato and Antonette Sharman, this programme debuted in 2013 as an accompaniment to the main Doraemon series. * Spanish Doraemon licensee LUK Internacional S.A. produced a short-lived live-action children's game show themed around the world of Doraemon, under the name "Doraemon Land". The show ran for only one 11-episode season in the late months of 2014. ** Kabushiki Gaisha ABS is currently working with many other TV networks, licensees and production companies in order to create a brand-new version of Doraemon Land, complete with 5 regional variations. The show is expected to air as an extension of Doraemon: A Visit To The 22nd Century on ABS; expected to air by itself on many other networks. Merchandising Main article: Doraemon merchandise Merchandise is widespread and encompasses many different categories. Numerous video games starring the characters have been released, and virtually any type of product that appeals to children has at least one Doraemon-themed variant; from specially-packaged foodstuffs, to special television remote controls, to plush figures of the main characters. Doraemon DVDs are produced so frequently that some Kabushiki Gaisha ABS insiders have claimed that "it's impossible to keep track of how many of the blasted things they Asahi have released". Kabushiki Gaisha ABS has, as of 2005, started creating and distributing merchandise designed for the international market. Unlike other anime merchandise intended for international distribution, which tends to be inferior to Japanese domestic products, some people stated that "the Japanese item sometimes seems inferior in comparison" after Kabushiki Gaisha ABS "allegedly put huge amounts of effort into designing new, unique merchandise items". Officially licensed and produced DVDs have been distributed by ABS ever since the 2005 reboot, but not on a scale comparable to the Japanese releases until 2013, when they started releasing more and more Doraemon DVD titles into their worldwide online store. The main DVD section of ABS' online shop actually had to exclude all Doraemon titles from its listings and place them on a separate abs.jp microsite "simply because there's too many of them". Category:Aso Broadcasting System Category:Anime Category:Doraemon